The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-06-10
Our Washington Letter


Washington June 9Th, 1887.
Washington is left alone among the
the beauty of its highly cultivated parks.
The National Drill is now thing of the
past, and very bad dream it is feared fl
nancially dream that will assume a
painful reality when the promoters Of the
affair have TO make good the reported de
felt of $4,000. But there is no authentic
statement of the expenses yet presented,
indeed it is not yet possible to have had in
all the items of expense, and a better show
ing may be hoped for. Of the drill itself
there can be no question of its success. In
point of numbers, many more could have
been Accommodated and welcomed. Such
vast ares as the portion allotted to the
camp, and so large space as the drill
ground would have required three times
the number of mep who attended to haye
filled it, and as the preparations we're made
for great number the expenses have been
propo rtionately great. The committee are
out of pocket perhaps, the Toledo Cadets
have had their just and bitter disappoint-
ment assuaged by their brilliant receipt
ion at home, and the two home companies,
the Washington Light Infantry and the
National Rifles, are made forever bitter
foes, and so endeth the drill happily in
spite of many things not happy in them
selves.
The annual session of the association of
Mechanical Engineers has been held here
this week. This organization numbers ov-
er seven hundred members. All of them
are not present at this session, however.
but representatives from all parts of the
Union are. On Wednesday evening they
were given reception at the beautiful
residence of ex-Commissioner Dent. This
house is one the handsomest in the city
in regard to view and situation it is un-
doubleday one of the finest in the District
On Georgetown Height in a park of noble
old oak trees, the broad house with its
wide halls and window, has an air of So
lidity and permanence not often to be met
with in American houses. The reception
was largely attended by many prominent
persons, residents and visitors, and the
members of the association, with the ladies
accompanying them, must take away with
them the pleasantest impressions of Wash
ington, as indeed any visitor here during
the month Of May must be sure to do.
The President and Mrs. Cleveland still
remain in the Adirondack woods, where
the President, if the catch of fish may not
always come up to his wishes, can find in
in perfection that immunity from the pub
lie gaze so dear to his heart.
The count of the cash in the Treasury
prior to the transfer of the Office of Treas
urer from Mr.. Jordon to Mr.. James w.
Hyatt, of Norwalk. Conn. has begun and
will continue indefinitely. The National
Bank Notes, the Legal Tenders, and silver
Certificates, were counted In two days, but
when it comes to silver dollars piled stack
upon stack is another matter. If the men
who succeeded in forcing the making of
law to purchase two million of silver bull
lion month (2,5OO,OOO standard silver
dollars) could witness this count, they
might witness the enormity of their offense
Each thousand dollars weigh sixty pounds
and Is tied in separate bag. The bags
are passed one by one down line of from
eight to twenty men according to the dis
lance to be traversed from one vault to
another, each bag is weighed in the pres
ence of a committee and piled up again in
vaults that have to be braced up by strong
beams on the outside to prevent the silver
from bursting the walls. Every available
space in the treasury is now occ upied by
these bags of metal, and some idea of the
magnitude of the subject may be reached
and brought nearer practicable concept
ion, when it is understood that this store is
added 10 each month by fifteen thousand
pounds of silver in five thousand bags
Where will it end? Where will it stop?
Washington will become second Pompeii
and will be buried not in ashes, but in
silver.
The tieeting character of Washington
life was most sadly exemplIfed the other
day, when it was desired to give Sir. Ed
ward Thornton, the former minister from
Great Britain to the United States dinner.
Sir Edward was requested to make out
list of his former friends here he would
like to meet again. He did so, and of all
that list numbering men once active ana
prominent in political and social life, but
one could be found in the town. The 9TH
ers, where? Dead or forgotten in the obliy-
ion of some distant small town.